50Steaks's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[crispy x Solacitude - Boreal Speedway]

This certainly has a different vibe than your earlier collab. Feels like crispy has a lot more influence which is something I appreciate. I also appreciate how you didn’t quantize the piano solo as it makes it feel more natural. Although I do gotta say the soft piano mixing does stick out a bit compared to the DnB high frequency chaotic stuff coming from the other sections.

Sol made the synth at the outro? Damn. That’s one of my favorite sections and I didn’t realize he made it.

Ol teddy is there as always. Gotta have him show up at least once in your music library. Could’ve included the sample where he got shot (is there one?) for more dramatic effect. He kept talking after he got shot by the way. Interesting story behind that one lmao

Great job as always!

crispybatteryacid responds:

glad you enjoyed Mr. Steak!

[The Minimallist]

Woah I should check your page more! I’m behind 2 songs.

Jazzy, slow feel, chill mall. Honestly not sure how much this fits with the mall aesthetic but I’m liking what I’m hearing so I don’t care. Always was curious if you’d ever try making a piece like this. You did not disappoint.

With writing like this I could even see you succeeding pretty well past the 12 tone system for some reason. Or maybe I’m just mentioning that cause I’ve gotten into microtonal music again recently. So many new possibilities when you break past the 12 notes.

Honestly I don’t have any specific feedback as this is pretty much done perfectly from start to finish. Amazing job here!

Solacitude responds:

Surely this mall is closed at night so it's very calm, far from the typical action there is during the day. Trying to evoke peace of mind, calmness, in a somewhat neutral emotional way :)

I never tried to compose out of 12 TET but it might be an experience I try at some point!
So many harmonies can be reach out of this 12 tones system! Music is truly an infinity of possibilities ^^

Thank you very much for passing by, and for this review, I'm flattered :)

[understand me]

This is so interesting! I find the idea that there is no real "drop" actually a really unique concept despite the fact that it wasn't what I think you were going for. I was expecting this super intense crazy melodic drop and it never really came. I think you pulled this off really well honestly. The main melody is super catchy so that helps a lot too.

OVERSCORE responds:

The main climax was intended to be around 1:32, but I agree it isn’t super extreme. This entire song in general is meant to be pretty chill, thoughtful. Im glad you find the melody catchy, it needed to be if it was going to be the core motif throughout the entire song! Thanks for all of the compliments, 50Steaks!

[Cave Monsters]

Very unique and atonal sound! I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this new account eventually surpassed your main account though given that electronic and video game is so much more popular here.

It's funny that you did end up making a second account, meanwhile I just post whatever I feel like on mine regardless of genre. NG isn't really like YT in that sense I don't think, it's not like people will unfollow because you started posting something that isn't exactly what they were expecting. In the end it's more about engaging with the community, doing events, collabs etc. like you have been and like I have been slacking on.

Branching out to try something totally new is never a bad idea, and this proves it.

Solactro responds:

I'm glad you liked this little 8-bit loop ^^ thanks for the review!

I had internal debate about whether or not I should just publish everything I do on the same account. I felt like it would help keep consistency publishing only my piano pieces on one account and everything else on another one. I was thinking of those 2 as different projects that I would definitely separate if I get into publishing through YT and/or streaming platforms. Though for NG itself I think you're right that it wouldn't matter if I kept everything under the same name... Would probably actually help! Still debating in my mind if I'm doing the right thing or if I should remove Solactro from there. In the end I could also publish everything under Solacitude on NG, but only publish piano works when using this name outside of NG...
Gonna continue this debate a little bit then settle for a definitive path.
Thank you for passing by! :D

[scrape]

That art is badass. Must be the album cover.
The dissonance! This has gotta be one of the more unique DnB songs I’ve seen on here. It all feels very contemporary, akin to the great 20th century composers who upended the idea of traditional harmonies and stepped forward into the use of new sounds (i.e. microtonality, atonal music). And this definitely fits the bill of atonal. It might be too wild for some listeners here to bear, but I can definitely appreciate how experimental this is. Also the percussion work is really impressive and varied. The ending might be a little abrupt, but that might be by design.

Sorry I haven’t been reviewing your tracks recently lmao. I keep telling myself to do it and then forget

vekoN responds:

thank you for the review! iirc this isn't really atonal, it's very chromatic but i believe i made everything revolve around Gm, with a picardy third ending

also i appreciate the comparison to the great 20th century composers! :)

again thank you for listening

[Twilight Symphony]

Modern take on the Dimrain style! It’s really brought home with the snare clap at 1:04. Sudden key changes are also very indicative of his style lmao. Drums at 2:32 are beyond anything he would’ve written but I like it tbh. I’ve listened to the vast majority of his music; he’s one of my favorite artists here even all these years later.

G2961 responds:

Thanks for the comment!!! Yeah, it's a slightly different take on his style, but as usual I couldn't help but add the DnB part with the hard drums at the end, lol. Yeah, he never used automation on the semitone change as far as I know, he usually raised the semitones starting from a new beat, not so abruptly.
To me he is also one of the greatest musicians and phenomena of this site, I especially like his track The Falling Mysts. It's a very cool and atmospheric Trance track.

[Expeeriemental]

A short little piece this time. It’s interesting how there’s tension and release in a whole tone piece like this, done solely through expression and nothing else. Reminds me of Ives’ whole tone pieces in that sense. And it’s cool to see you try new scales and stuff instead of sticking to major or minor. Honestly I’d love to hear your take on Phrygian or Lydian next.

Solacitude responds:

It was quite a challenge to come up with something, I was playing around improvising with this scale and ended up recording a couple somewhat "good" takes so I decided to put it here. No 5th and no semi tones makes for a bit of a difficult time, completely out of my comfort zone.

This mode gives very little opportunities to resolve or to develop ideas into something that I would deem more "easy listening". Though it's a very interesting exercise! At first I though I was playing with the mystic scale, but then figured the note A is part of it as well acting as 5th note of the scale.... Which I don't use in there. So in the end I'm not sure how to call this, maybe pentatonic whole tone scale ^^ It creates interesting sound I think that would fit quite well in some instances to evoke mystery, unsettling feeling. I might use it at some point, with parsimony, in more regular compositions too. Next time I'll try to go for a more complex and full, proper piece, with normal keys/scales.

I might explore Phrygian and Lydian modes a little bit more too! I often find myself going back to the good old Ionian/Aeolian.

Thank you for passing by and leaving a review! ^^

[Solacitude x crispy - Ultimatum]

As someone who loves both calamity and interstellar, this feels right at home. And the key change works surprisingly well. I find it funny that I first heard about dm dokuro not through calamity but through GD, with reality check through the skull. So yeah I’ve known him for a while.

Solacitude doing a collab isn’t something I expected, but it makes total sense. It’s always better to have a live performer than a soundfont, no matter how good the sampler is. I do think the strings could have swelled more, at the moment it kinda feels like sol stole the show! Though I did listen to this without headphones. Excellent job here!

crispybatteryacid responds:

Gotta love DM Dokuro, hes why I started making music

I believe this is Sol's first collab, and I was honoured to have been a part of it; but yeah he def carried this one lol. Glad you enjoyed!

[Contemplation]

It’s exercises like these that show how incredible of a pianist you are. Able to work within strict limits yet able to make something this musical. This is one of my favorites of yours. Actually incredible

Solacitude responds:

Thank you so much! I was putting it here just because I thought maybe it could bring some peace of mind to someone else, but being your favorite goes beyond my expectation!

Thanks for the feedback and generous compliments! That this piece could at least give to someone else a little bit of the comfort it gives to me is all I could ask for ^^

[The Day that Won't Come]

I, for one, have been very glad to see you branch out more recently and try new things. Can’t remember the last time you made a piano centric piece like this tbh.

Definitely a jazzy feel with that intro. A mixture of basic cadences and extended harmonies, like other piano jazz pieces I’ve heard. Combining the traditional with the new (though not really that new anymore lol) in a unique blend of texture and rhythm.
A softer section follows that brings us to a section that reminds me a lot of the spirit of your older music. It’s hard to describe, gives almost a throwback vibe. Honestly this whole piece reminds me of your older music, which is definitely not a bad thing because in many ways those songs have their own nice qualities. The ending feels a little abrupt for some reason, maybe because it’s not really built up to much.

It’s just refreshing to know that you can still compose heartwarming pieces without cinematic choir sounds. Wondering if I can compose without my illustrious trumpet or snare drum, lmao. Anyway really nice job on this as always; kinda makes me wanna try solo piano again after the failures of etude no 1 and the much lesser known (and I think still unpublished) etude no 2. Don’t think you’d remember those since they’re something else (and probably impossible to play).

Tangerine responds:

Thank you! It really has been a fat minute since I've made something like this. I quite enjoy making jazz-styled songs and I think I should do it more often. Still, though, I enjoy making orchestral music way too much xd. Perhaps I'll make a big band song sometime this year ;).

Not gonna lie, the reason this sounds like one of my older pieces is likely because it is one of my older pieces. The chords and melodies were made years ago. I just thought it'd be a fun exercise to try writing for solo piano.

I think a staple of my older songs was how often I made jazz songs along with the more cinematic stuff. I guess now that my quality has increased and my standards have risen, I slowly stopped making jazz songs because I don't have access to or the ability to use any decent jazz samples. Besides, half the joy of jazz genres like big band is the soloism in them. I don't think I could replicate that synthetically and I certainly don't have the skills to play them physically. Perhaps if I get myself a midi keyboard I might just be able to pull it off.

As for the choir, I don't think I rely too terribly much on it. I do use it a lot but not as a crutch. If you look at some of my more choir-heavy songs, you can see that strings honestly do most of the heavy lifting. Autumn wind for example. With the exception of that one section, most of the lyrical passages are done by piano or strings.

For some of my newer pieces like High Noon and Hall of the Pumpkin King, the trumpet carries the melodies a lot more than the choir does. Choir is mostly used as texture and occasionally as the melody. If I were to suddenly lose the choir as a tool, I don't think my music would be impacted as badly as if strings or brass were taken away.

Pieces like High Noon have a heavy concentration of Choir because that's one of the main pillars of the genre and how I understand the Western themes. I did try and incorporate a larger variety of instruments such as the guitar and the Mexican whistle.

A lot of the emotion I spew into my songs typically comes from chord choice rather than thought-out instrumentation.

But yeah I should do jazz more. This was fun :)